Heart of Midlothian
Also written as Hearts.
The club
Heart of Midlothian were founded in 1874 and take their name from Walter Scott's novel and the Heart of Midlothian mosaic set into the Royal Mile in Edinburgh. They have played at Tynecastle Park in Gorgie since 1886; the capacity is 19,852 following the rebuilding of the main stand in 2017. The club are the Jam Tarts, or the Jambos, and play in maroon and white. Since 30 August 2021 the Foundation of Hearts has been the majority shareholder, making Hearts the largest fan-owned club in the United Kingdom. That structure grew directly out of the 2013 administration, when the club carried debts of around £25m.
Recent seasons
Hearts were relegated in 2019/20, finishing twelfth with 23 points from a season curtailed by the pandemic, having reached the Scottish Cup final. They won the Championship at the first attempt in 2020/21 with 57 points from 27 games. Back up, they were third in 2021/22 with 61 points and Scottish Cup runners-up, fourth in 2022/23 with 54 points, and third again in 2023/24 with 68 points, reaching both domestic cup semi-finals. A poor 2024/25 followed: seventh, 52 points, 15 wins and 16 defeats.
The 2025/26 season was the club's best in decades. Under head coach Derek McInnes, Hearts finished second in the Premiership with 80 points from 38 games, 24 wins, 8 draws and 6 defeats, 67 goals scored and 34 conceded, two points behind champions Celtic. They won 2-0 at Ibrox in September 2025 and beat Celtic 3-1 at Tynecastle in October. Both cups went badly: out of the League Cup in the second round to St Mirren on penalties after a 1-1 draw, and out of the Scottish Cup in the fourth round to Falkirk on penalties, also after 1-1. Captain Lawrence Shankland scored 16 league goals and 20 in all competitions. The final day, at home to Celtic, ended with supporters coming onto the pitch after Celtic's third goal in the 98th minute and allegations of assault against Hearts staff. Ann Budge stood down as chairman on 1 December 2025 and was succeeded by Calum Paterson.
Honours and landmarks
Hearts have won the Scottish league championship four times. The last two are dated 1957/58 and 1959/60; sources disagree on the Victorian pair, with Wikipedia giving 1895 and 1896 and the Football Club History Database giving 1894/95 and 1896/97. They have won the Scottish Cup eight times, in 1891, 1896, 1901, 1906, 1956, 1998, 2006 (on penalties against Gretna) and 2012, and the League Cup four times, in 1954/55, 1958/59, 1959/60 and 1962/63. They also won the second-tier title in 2014/15 and 2020/21, the first of those after being deducted 15 points in 2013/14 on entering administration. The 1957/58 championship side scored 132 league goals and finished with a goal difference of plus 103. Record attendance is 53,396 against Rangers in the Scottish Cup on 13 February 1932. Barney Battles scored 44 league goals in 1930/31. John Robertson scored 214 league goals between 1983 and 1998 and Gary Mackay made 515 league appearances between 1980 and 1997. The record fee received is £9m for goalkeeper Craig Gordon to Sunderland in August 2008; the record paid is £850,000 to Genk for Mirsad Beslija in January 2006. The furthest European run was the UEFA Cup quarter-final of 1988/89, lost to Bayern Munich.
Notable scorelines
Record win: 15-0 against King's Park in the Scottish Cup second round on 13 February 1937. Record defeat: 1-8 against Vale of Leven in the Scottish Cup third round in 1883. In the Edinburgh derby, Hearts' biggest competitive win is 8-3 in a league match on 21 September 1935, and their heaviest derby defeat is the 7-0 loss to Hibernian at Tynecastle on 1 January 1973.
Head-to-head notes
The only published all-time record is the derby. Up to 26 April 2026 Hearts and Hibernian had met 345 times competitively, Hearts winning 152, Hibernian 90, with 103 draws: 300 league meetings (Hearts 129, Hibs 77, 94 draws), 39 Scottish Cup ties (Hearts 18, Hibs 12, 9 draws) and six League Cup ties (Hearts 5, Hibs 1). Hearts took three of the four derbies in 2025/26: 1-0 at home on 4 October 2025, 3-2 to Hibernian at Easter Road on 27 December, 1-0 at home on 10 February 2026 and 2-1 at Easter Road on 26 April. No published all-time head-to-head record was found for the other 2026/27 Premiership clubs: Aberdeen, Celtic, Dundee, Dundee United, Falkirk, Kilmarnock, Motherwell, Rangers, St Johnstone and St Mirren.
Right now (2026/27)
Derek McInnes left for Rangers in June 2026 and Wouter Vrancken was appointed head coach on 25 June 2026 on a two-year contract. The summer was a substantial rebuild. Lawrence Shankland was sold to Rangers for an undisclosed fee on 26 May 2026 and midfielder Cammy Devlin followed to Ibrox on a free on 10 July. Craig Gordon retired on 16 July. Michael Steinwender joined VfL Bochum on 23 June, Islam Chesnokov went to FC Tobol on 28 June, and on 17 July Macaulay Tait joined St Johnstone and goalkeeper Alexander Schwolow returned to Mainz 05. Beni Baningime, Alan Forrest, Frankie Kent and Lewis Neilson left as free agents; young defenders Gregor Crookston and Kai Smutek dropped to Hamilton Academical.
The arrivals were mostly from abroad and mostly for undisclosed fees: Calvin Miller from Falkirk on 4 June, Amadou Ba-Sy from Rouen on 10 June, Malachi Fagan-Walcott from York City on 18 June, Sabri Guendouz from Beerschot and Tom Renaud from Versailles on 24 June, Cormac Daly from Nottingham Forest on 30 June, Beau Reus from Beveren on 17 July and Laurent Mendy from Forest Green Rovers on 24 July, with MJ Kamson-Kamara from Lincoln City for compensation on 27 May. On 8 July the club agreed a cooperation partnership with Stenhousemuir, sending defender Matthew Gillies and midfielder Gus Stevenson to Ochilview for the season.
Second place carried Hearts into the Champions League second qualifying round, where Sturm Graz beat them 4-0 in Austria on 21 July 2026 and 2-0 at Tynecastle on 28 July, 6-0 on aggregate. They drop into the Europa League third qualifying round against Benfica, away on 6 August and at home on 13 August. As European entrants they skip the League Cup group stage and enter at the second round, at home to Inverness Caledonian Thistle on 16 August 2026. The Premiership season opens away to Aberdeen on Saturday 1 August 2026 at 5.30pm.
Sources
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heart_of_Midlothian_F.C. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Heart_of_Midlothian_F.C._seasons https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2025%E2%80%9326_Heart_of_Midlothian_F.C._season https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026%E2%80%9327_Heart_of_Midlothian_F.C._season https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2025%E2%80%9326_Scottish_Premiership https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026%E2%80%9327_Scottish_Premiership https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edinburgh_derby https://www.stevesfootballstats.uk/heart_of_midlothian_club_record.html https://fchd.info/HEARTS.HTM https://www.stenhousemuirfc.com/2026/07/08/stenhousemuir-agree-cooperation-partnership-with-heart-of-midlothian-as-gillies-and-stevenson-arrive/
Researched and written for not4quarters. Where a fact could not be established from the sources read, this page says so rather than guessing.